Columbia, S.C. - December 1, 2004 - Governor Mark Sanford today issued the following statement on North Charleston's selection as the new home for two leading international aerostructures manufacturers, Vought Aircraft Industries and Alenia North America: 

"The bottom line is that like BMW, this announcement is a major step forward for South Carolina's economy and a major step forward in our efforts to raise income levels and improve quality of life for our citizens," said Gov. Mark Sanford. "Just as importantly, it's a huge win in terms of our ability to compete globally for jobs, capital investment and the kind of industry that can help fuel an entire state's economic growth for years to come. Just as we're excited about the foundation for future economic growth that you see with this project, we're also excited about the prospect of getting reforms like income tax relief passed that will improve our underlying business climate and enhance our state's competitive advantage moving forward."

The combined Vought-Alenia partnership will produced integrated fuselage structures for the new Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner, and will result in the creation of approximately 645 jobs with a capital investment of roughly $560 million. 

"As we welcome Vought and Alenia, we're also welcoming yet another high-tech, high-skill economic development cluster to our state," said Gov. Mark Sanford. "Like our expanding automotive cluster in the Upstate, this announcement is all about creating another vibrant hub of economic activity in a globally competitive, high-profile, high-growth industry - aerospace engineering. It's an announcement that showcases our state's competitive advantages in terms of workforce, infrastructure and quality of life, and it's also an example of how successful companies that already call South Carolina home stepped up to the plate and helped us expand our shared economic development horizons."